Devizes to Great Bedwyn

Hello, are you having a good weekend?

We're now moored in Great Bedwyn, but it's been a bit of a struggle getting here.  There aren't many dedicated visitor moorings and the ones between Devizes and Great Bedwyn seem to be taken up with continuous moorers. The moorings at Wooton Rivers are 48 hours but it's obvious that some of the boats have been there a lot longer. They were mostly double breasted up with crap all over the towpath.

We really struggled for a mooring that night as the banks are very overgrown and the canal sides are extremely shallow.  When the heavens opened around 6 o'clock, we decided we'd had enough and managed to get the bow into the weedy bank close enough to be able to use the plank.

There was no way we could get the stern in and David had to breast up as best he could without blocking the canal. By the time we'd finished we were all soaked

We stayed in Devizes for 2 nights as I'd arranged to meet a couple of friends for lunch. Louise and Caroline were in my Breast Cancer Care chemo support group and we've stayed friends ever since.

Devizes market is on Thursday and has to be one of the best I've found for a long while. The fruit and veg stalls are amazing and I bought some strawberries to make jam.

Roger and David went on the Wadworth Brewery Tour and said they'd highly recommend it if you're in Devizes and have a spare couple of hours.

There was a chance to sample the ales after the tour but surprisingly they came home minus any "take-away". I suppose a keg would have been a bit heavy to carry.

Yesterday we passed this boat. It was the fourth one we built and is still in good condition 14 years later.

Yesterday we also saw a lot of young male teenagers walking down the canal. They told us they were walking a hundred miles!  50 miles from Beechen Cliff School in Bath along the K&A to Hungerford, turn round and 50 miles back.  A lot of them had sore feet and were hobbling, but it was no wonder really as they were all wearing trainers rather than proper walking boots or shoes.  I was surprised that there was no adult supervision, especially as the stragglers were walking on their own with long gaps between them.  At one lock someone had left them water containers which was great, except for the three who turned up having thrown their water bottles away when they were empty as they expected to be given bottles of water.

One couple of lads looked so miserable that I gave them a packet of biscuits for energy. I looked on t'internet and they were walking to raise money for a cancer scanner. Good job lads!

That's all for now, I'm going to sit outside in the sun and do a bit of crochet.  See you soon